If you've been reading my blog for awhile, then you know I love Halloween. I've been super busy lately, so haven't had time to put up any Fall/Halloween decorations yet, but I was able to get my Halloween costume done (even before October 1st!!!). I've had the idea to be Mike Wazowski from "Monsters Inc" for a few years now, but decided that this was the year of Mike!
This won't be a full-on tutorial since I'll be referencing other tutorials, but I'll give you a run-down on how I made it. My Miss Potato Head costume was the inspiration - actually, when I was buying the material for it a few years ago, I saw the lime green material, which gave me the idea for Mike. Before buying my supplies, I sketched out my idea so I would know exactly what I needed.
List of materials needed:
*Felt from the bolt (in lime green) - I needed 1.25 yards, but it will depend on your sizing.
*Felt pre-cut rectangles (in gray, dark green, black, white)
*Elastic
*Thread
Using Andrea's Notebook's tutorial as a guide for the whole project, I cut out the body for Mike. I actually just laid my Miss Potato Head costume on top of the material and cut around one side (I made sure to allow for the seams too), but if you're doing this for the first time, then you'll need to check out her tutorial.
Then, I folded it in half and cut the other side. Just make sure that the front & back pieces are completely cut apart. When I made Miss Potato Head, the front & back pieces were still connected at the shoulders, however for Mike, I attached his horns at the shoulders, so I needed for them to be cut apart.
As you saw in my original sketch, I had rounded out his body since Mike is like a little round ball. But, I accidentally bought the wrong material - I was so focused on finding the right color that I didn't pay attention to the type of material. Oopsie! I bought fleece instead of felt and the fleece was way to soft to hold any shape, so I just kept the shape of Miss Potato Head. No biggie! I figured that if I did his face right, then people would know what I was going for. ;)
I then made templates for the face. For the eye, I used a mixing bowl, a regular bowl, and I think a glass and just traced around the edges.
For the mouth & teeth, I just hand drew it until it looked right and cut out the pieces for the templates. The eye lid - I just cut from the same material as the body and made a moon shape.
After the templates were made, I cut out the pieces from the felt. Looking good so far!
Learning from my Miss Potato Head costume, I included pockets (which, by the way, I went ahead and added pockets to Miss Potato Head while I was already in sewing mode) using Blogging From Bliss' easy to follow tutorial. I made my own template to make sure my phone would fit, but I really should have used her template (the shape of my template doesn't allow for it to hang inside correctly, so it bunches up & is annoying, but live & learn). For the pockets, I used the same material as the body.
Next, I sewed the pieces of the face together. Once they were together, I placed them on the front piece of the body and then sewed them directly onto the body.
Before sewing up the sides of the body, I sewed on the pockets. I'm not going to explain here how I did it - the tutorial above explains it better!
After the pockets were done, I tried it on to make sure everything was looking ok at this point.
Yep! So far, so good! If you are using felt, like I should have, this is where you would make a casing for the elastic at the bottom of the body (the elastic would have brought in the bottom a bit more to your legs, helping to show off the "rounded" shape of the body). But, since I made a boo-boo and used the wrong material, I just hemmed it up. Now, you're ready to sew up the sides. Don't forget to leave the openings for the pockets!
Apparently, I didn't take pictures of when I did the horns, but they were my last step. Using a template I made, I cut the pieces for the horns, sewed them together, and then attached them to the shoulders before sewing them up in the shoulders. You can see the horns on the shoulders in this next picture here. The felt was quite thick, so they stayed up on their own.
Also, in that picture, you can see how just under the arm holes, the material kind of sags a bit. So, I closed up the arm holes a bit more so it fit better.
Here, you can see how the pockets turned out. I was pretty proud that they came out like they were supposed to! Fancy! ;)
I wanted to find some leggings or something for my arms since Mike Wazowski's arms & legs are the same color as his body, but I couldn't find anything to match the lime green. So, I just used a black, long-sleeved thermal and black leggings and I think it came out just fine! (It was so dang hot with the thermal on, though - even so late at night!).
So, there you have it. It was actually easy to whip up. I didn't time it, but it probably took maybe 2-3 hours total (I worked on it here & there over a few nights). And it would have taken me less time if I didn't have to re-do the pockets a few times. ;) This project also cost me about $8 to make, using coupons (plus, some supplies I already had on hand). If I had used the elastic, it would have been about $9, but either way, this was another cheap costume I made and I had fun making it! Let me know if you have any questions!
Originally posted by Adventures in DIY
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That is ridiculously adorable and simple! I love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, cousin!
Deletehow cute! love the costume and thanks for the tute!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! It's pretty easy - give it a try. :)
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